Mears to Test Tender Feet and a New Car

One of Roger Penske’s tenets is that you don’t stand on success.

After fielding the last two Indianapolis 500 winners with store-bought Marches, Penske announced at last year’s Indy winner’s circle press conference that he would be back in 1986 with his own model Penske, powered by a British-built Chevrolet engine.

The Great Experiment gets its first serious outing today in the Toyota Grand Prix of Long Beach when Rick Mears, the 1984 Indy winner, tests the new machine as well as his own tender feet, which prevented him from racing a year ago in the seaside street race.

Mears will be starting back in ninth position, while his Penske teammate, 1985 Indy winner Danny Sullivan, will start on the pole in a March--but Indy watchers will be closely following the fortunes of the yellow Chevrolet-powered Pennzoil Penske PC-15.

A crowd of 75,000 is anticipated for the 95-lap (158-mile) race on an 11-turn course that winds through the Hyatt Hotel garage and around the Convention Center and Arena along high-speed Shoreline Boulevard.

Sullivan’s Friday qualifying speed of 90.318 m.p.h. kept him on the pole, as it was not surpassed on Saturday. Al Unser Jr. will start alongside him, even though Unser broke the gearbox in his Lola early in qualifying. Little Al’s 89.578 Friday kept him on the front row.

Sullivan will drive a March because only one PC-15 has been delivered from the Penske factory in Poole, England. Two more are due shortly for Sullivan and Al Unser, last year’s CART/PPG Indy car champion, who is sitting out this race.

“The Chevy is still an unknown quantity,” Sullivan said, adding: “We decided to put me in the March and Rick in the Chevy because I’m in the points (for the driving championship).”

Last Sunday, in the Phoenix 200, Sullivan finished fourth behind Kevin Cogan, Tom Sneva and Emerson Fittipaldi to score 12 points. Mears did not score as he placed 19th after an oil leak put him out of the race.

Unser raced the Chevy at Phoenix, only five days out of the box from England. He qualified seventh and ran 100 laps before a broken wing strut sent him spinning into the wall.

Following the crash, the Chevrolet engine was flown to Penske’s shop in Reading, Pa., where it was examined by engine chief Karl Kainhofer and returned to Long Beach for qualifying.

A second Chevy engine was air-freighted from Pennsylvania Friday night and was installed in the Penske for today’s race.

Mears, after driving the PC-15 a few laps on Thursday at Firebird Raceway in Phoenix and two days of practice and qualifying at Long Beach, is enthusiastic over the new car’s future.

“I like it better than the March,” he said. “It has a good feel to it. I think the Chevy engine will be better than the Cosworth, too, because it has a better response, especially in mid-range.”

Mears will be driving in his first road race since an accident in September 1984 near Montreal hospitalized him with severe foot injuries.

“It’s been a busy two days here, learning a new car, a new engine and a new track,” Mears said. “It’s been so long since I was on a road course that it was new to me. I feel fine driving and I’m making big gains with my walking, although the nerve damage can be painful and the skin is still tender.”

Mears tested his feet in January at Willow Springs Raceway during a strenuous all-day engine test.

“I ran 15 to 20 laps hard, one after another, from early in the morning until it got dark,” he said. “I felt pretty good after it was over, good enough to know I could race hard at Long Beach.”

Grand Prix Notes

One reason for slower times Saturday was because the session was interrupted by a series of crashes that found defending champion Mario Andretti and Galles teammates Geoff Brabham and Roberto Moreno smacking the walls along the cement barrier-lined course. Andretti’s crash, which occured just as he approached the hotel garage, broke suspension parts on the right-rear of his Lola and damaged the rear wing. He was not injured, and the car is expected to be ready for today’s 2 p.m. start. This was the first time that Andretti has not won the pole for a Long Beach Indy car race. He will start third in his quest for a third straight win on the track where he also won a Formula One Grand Prix in 1977. . . . The only appreciable improvement among the drivers Saturday was by former two-time world champion Emerson Fittipaldi, who moved from ninth to fourth with a 89.153-m.p.h. lap. Fifteen of the 24 starters qualified with Friday speeds.

Andretti’s Newman-Haas team and Al Unser Jr.’s Team Shierson waited until qualifying was completed Saturday to file a protest against the Patrick cars of Kevin Cogan and Fittipaldi. They claimed the March 86Cs have exhaust deflectors that provide extra downforce. The CART stewards were due to consider the protest at 9 this morning, but CART officials Kirk Russell, director of operations, and Wally Dallenbach, chief steward, indicated it was a question that would have to be resolved in wind-tunnel tests. . . . Josele Garza, quoted earlier about the poor handling of his ’85 March, said after qualifying 19th that it was handling “reasonably well” and he was concerned that he had offended his crew. “They’ve been working day and night,” he said. “I think once the race starts, I can be competitive.”. . . Cogan’s March 86C that he drove to his first CART win at Phoenix was repaired after Friday’s fire but had engine problems Saturday. He switched to his backup again and picked up almost a full second to qualify 10th. . .